


Unspoken truths

by TheGrinch



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, M/M, Mild Language, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 10:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8158777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrinch/pseuds/TheGrinch
Summary: Set after Nahele drops the ring off for Steve and Danny finds it by accident in his desk drawer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys :-) This is another McDanno one shot, but a bit more angsty than my last one and I don't know if I like how I've written the last half of it so I may edit it at some point. Once again apologies for any mistakes, let me know about them and I'll sort them out ASAP. I don't own Hawaii Five 0 or any of the characters in it.
> 
> Please R&R

“Hey, what did Nahele want earlier?” Danny asked as he and Steve drove back to the Five 0 headquarters.

The blonde didn’t miss the way Steve’s grip on the steering wheel tensed and then vanished as quickly as it came. A few years ago Danny wouldn’t have noticed, but you don’t spend time with the former SEAL without picking up a few new habits. And Danny had definitely picked up new habits from Steve professionally… and privately. If the rest of the team had suspected anything regarding the latter, well, they had either the respect, or common sense, not to say anything. 

"Nothing Danno." Steve replied, flashing Danny his signature grin as though he hadn’t tensed at all. 

The shorter man for once didn’t say anything, just nodded offhandedly and turned to look out of the window, unease growing in his stomach. Steve called him ‘Danno’ for one of three reasons. One: when he was being sarcastic. Two: when they were in the bedroom. Three: the most recent reason, when he was trying to hide something. 

And right now, Steve was definitely hiding something.

But that wasn’t anything new at the moment. Not with Catherine back. 

Danny had never asked how much Catherine knew about his and Steve’s… well, what he and Steve did of an adult nature behind closed doors. Or whether she even knew at all. He knew that Steve and Catherine weren’t anywhere near exclusive when Danny had first met her; the distance their jobs were apart made it a little hard for two adults with a healthy libido and affinity for getting into deadly situations willing to enter anything serious or exclusive. Then she moved to the island for a while. Joined the team. She and Steve became more serious. But his and Steve’s thing didn’t stop, it decreased a little in frequency, but it never came close to stopping. When Catherine left, as much as Danny liked her, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat relieved. Yet his and Steve’s thing never changed; it increased back to its original rate but other than that…

The day Steve said she was back for Kono’s wedding Danny froze. 

Then Steve came home with him that night like nothing had happened. When the sun came up though, the former SEAL was gone, his spot in the bed cold. Danny tried not to let it bother him. He had known Steve six years. Been sleeping with him for five. Neither of them ever used the word ‘exclusive’ or ‘relationship’. You couldn’t even say they were regular or steady. However, for some inexplicable reason, that morning when Danny woke up, knowing that Steve had left in the night to go back Catherine – like a hundred times before – he felt hollow. Because he realised that no matter how long he and Steve slept together, Steve would always go back to her. ‘I love you’ was the unspoken truth in the bedroom. They threw the phrase around in public but when alone, never. That made things real. That didn’t leave a door to causally walk out of. 

Ever since Catherine was back Steve had gotten more closed off than normal. He was definitely hiding something and the timing of it clearly meant that Catherine had to be involved somehow. The only thing that Danny could think of was that Catherine wanted Steve to stop what he had going on with Danny. Danny could understand that, he would want the same thing if he was her. But the fact that Steve wouldn’t go near the topic meant there had to be more than Danny was considering. 

"You okay, you er, you seem a little more… weird than usual, which isn’t weirder by a normal person’s standard but it’s you so…” The blonde tried, scratching his eyebrow nervously.

“I’m fine. Just ready to finish for the day.” Steve curtly retorted. Danny didn’t call him out on the lie. In fact Danny didn’t say anything the rest of the ride. 

When they got back to the headquarters Steve disappeared off, Chin informing him that the governor had to see him about something or other. Danny headed to his office to do the ever mounting pile of paperwork that seemed to appear. After about half an hour his pen ran out and the rest seemed to give up after a few words or so. 

“Hey Chin, you got any spare pens?” 

“No sorry brah, my cuz seems to have a habit of ‘borrowing’ them. The day any of them return is the day you have pineapple on your pizza.” Danny chuckled.

“Okay, I’ll see if the Neanderthal has any in his desk.” The blonde replied, already pushing Steve’s office door.

Being the neat freak that he was, there was nothing Steve’s desk but a few organised files and a laptop. The first drawer had nothing in it but more files. Go figure. The second drawer however was filled with stationery, including pens, but Danny’s gaze fixed on something else entirely. A box. And having used one of these such boxes before with Rachel, Danny had a pretty good idea what it was.

Danny knew this was one of those moments when you close the drawer, go back to work and pretend he saw nothing. But he was Detective Danny Williams and he had been around Steve too long to do the sensible thing. 

Slowly, but somehow steadily, Danny lifted the box out of the drawer and popped the lid. A diamond ring for a finger smaller than his stared right back at him. 

“Is that what I think it is?” A voice – Chin’s – came from the doorway. Danny finally looked away from the ring, unsure how long he must have been standing there holding it in his hand. Chin’s face had a huge grin on it and Danny quickly tried to mimic the other man, although his success was debateable.

“Yeah, guess so.” The blonde finally managed.

“Wow, something that leaves you speechless and it only took six years.” Chin chuckled and Danny weakly joined in, which the other man picked up instantly. “Hey, you know it’s not the end of the world right brah? Not even Cath can make Steve leave the team.”

“No I know.” The blonde could tell Chin wasn’t buying his chill act. “It’s erm, a bit of a shock y’know, hard to believe our Neanderthal grunt is considering the old ball and chain.”

Chin seemed to buy it, disappearing to his own office as Danny shoved the ring back in the drawer. He was about to leave when he remembered to grab the pen he was originally after. Not that it did much good. Danny couldn’t focus on his work afterwards. But oddly, despite the overwhelming mix of emotions that made him feel like he was being torn apart, there was a part of him that seemed… relieved. 

“Danny? Danny!” The detective snapped up from his thoughts to see Steve standing in the doorway, one arm propped on it. Seeing Danny stare at him with a half dazed expression, Steve let out a chuckle. “You okay there? Sure? Okay. No I believe you. Okay, well the governor-”

“I found the ring.” Oh god. Danny didn’t mean to say it. At all. Both of them froze. Steve regained himself first, folding his arms defensively and face ready to dig into Danny for going into his stuff before unfolding them and running a hand over his face instead, starting and stopping halfway through an explanation. “It’s okay.”

The taller man stopped talking and just stared at Danny. 

“What?”

Sighing heavily, Danny put the pen down and briefly pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“I said it’s okay, really, it’s okay. You’ve hurt me, I- I can’t lie about that, it hurts, you picked Cath, but… it’s okay.”

Steve stood there for a minute, confusion and a frown etched into his face. “‘It’s okay’?”

Sighing Danny stood up, moving around his desk but not moving to Steve. 

“Yeah, because let’s face it Steve. You and Cath love each other. But so do we, we don’t say it, but we do. We love each other… but it’s too much. We’ll burn out. If we really say the words we have to accept what we have is real, and that means accepting that one day we’re going to have burnt out. I mean Jesus Christ, we drive each other crazy now, can you imagine how bad things might – or would – end up going down the line, and, and I don’t want that, I-I could handle that with Rachel, but not you. But you and Cath, you guys, you guys love each other enough, it couldn’t hurt you like it would us. So yeah, it’s, it’s okay.” 

Steve hadn’t said anything. Hadn’t moved. Hadn’t even exhaled as Danny has been talking. And Danny can’t stand being there anymore. He has to go. 

“I love you.” 

Danny turns from where he’s grabbing his jacket to stare at Steve. Silently he moves to Steve, standing slightly next to the taller man. He reaches his hand to Steve’s cheek and pulls his face down slightly to plant a brief, chaste kiss on his lips before pulling back.

“I know. And I love you. But you love Cath too.” 

With that he pushes past the limp frame and past the shock frozen Chin, out of headquarters for the day.


End file.
